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Africa
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Conclusions of the First HERITY International Conference

Saturday, 9 December 2006

This conference was held in Rome from December 5-9. The conclusions outlined below were reached thanks to contributions from ICCROM, UNESCO-WHC, UN-WTO, HERITY INTERNATIONAL

From the point of view of culture, no poor Countries exist around the World: every territory has a significant and priceless Heritage Wealth. This Heritage constitutes the collective memory of Humanity. As a non renewable resource, Cultural Heritage should be managed according to Quality principles, ensuring its preservation in the context of sustainable development.

For this:

1) It is essential today to have a clear classification of monuments, sites and museums to provide orientations to tourism managers and the general public, letting visitors have a better understanding of the places they visit; they will then be motivated to support conservation and management of cultural heritage and the work of specialists.

2) While proposing classification of monuments, sites, museums, libraries and archives they should not be listed just as "first class" or "second class" assets, but recognized according to the significance they have for a group of people as well as for the capability to transmit the message they embody, including as well their related characteristics, conservation features, communication aspects and services offered. As a consequence, existing classifications systems should be updated and, possibly, unified.

3) In this process tourism can be a key contributor to heritage sites, in terms of generating further awareness on their value as well as financial resources for improving conservation efforts. Therefore, tourism at heritage sites should be managed with quality and sustainability principles in mind.

4) To match this goal quality management of cultural heritage should be a priority in the near future; in addition safeguarding and valorizing of cultural heritage should be considered a collective responsibility all over the World.